Blood and Gold: The Making of Spain with Simon Sebag Montefiore Conquest (2015– ) Online

Blood and Gold: The Making of Spain with Simon Sebag Montefiore Conquest (2015– ) Online

Spain, or rather the peninsula Iberia, has arguably Europe's most exotic culture, sharing much history with the Mediterranean and especially Africa. The hopelessly divided, largely Celtic tribes were no match for the sea's rivaling superpowers, who craved its rich natural resources, notably mines. The Fenecian lead city Carthage achieved near-total control under general Hasdrubal. His son Hannibal set out from there over the mountain to bring war to rival Rome, but counterpart Scipio earned his victory name Africanus by crushing the North African nest and destroyed its port-capital. Under long Rian rule, Iberia prospered and yielded some major late emperors, notably Trajan and Hadrian. Nevertheless, the Germanic invasions swept over the peninsula, despite Byzantine help, the Vandals leaving only their name to Andalusia, but the Visigoths established a great kingdom, after Rome itself has switched paganism for Christianity. Later Islam would swept over from North Africa, Arabs and ...